Tentacles and Suckers
by SugarJunkE
Summary: It was a well-known fact that Temari of the Sand never ate octopus, squid or anything that had tentacles.


**Tentacles and Suckers**

_SugarJunkE (a.k.a Bubbleyum)_

_Pairing: Slight Temari/Shikamaru (If you don't like it then don't read it. Simple as that. All flames will be ignored because I just don't roll that way. Thank you and please come again.) Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my imagination and my cheap HP laptop which you can't have so blahhh. Props go to Kishi for giving me these wonderful characters to mess with may Jashin-sama bless his soul._

_Warning: This is very Temari-centric. Side effects may include the urge to carry around a ridiculously large fan, the need to wear your hair in four extremely spikey pigtails and the desire to nag a certain lazy genius. The writer is not liable for any drastic changes in personality or fashion sense._

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It was a well-known fact that Temari of the Sand never ate octopus, squid or anything that had tentacles. It wasn't that she hated the taste—she'd never tasted either—the truth was that they terrified her.

Very few people knew of this fact, she herself had discovered her fear of them the first time she went to a beach, back in her genin days. They had just completed a mission and Kankuro had persuaded Baki into letting them visit the beach before they had to return to Suna to which Baki had agreed to surprisingly enough.

Kankuro had tried to get her to wade in the water with him, purple paint dripping down his face. She'd decided that a quick dip wouldn't hurt as she set her fan down near Baki and Gaara. Baki was peacefully napping on a blanket—as peacefully as someone near Gaara could nap—he had one eye slightly open to keep an eye on Gaara. Back then Gaara had been in his "psychopath phase", as they so fondly called it, at that moment however, he seemed to be preoccupied with the beach's pale sand.

Temari smiled wistfully, he looked more like a child then the cold-blooded killer he was as he slowly ran his fingers through the sand.

A cold splash of water hit her in the face; she could taste the disgustingly salty water in her mouth. Furious, she whipped around to see Kankuro putting his hands up defensively.

"Whoops?" He slowly started to back up smirking impishly.

Temari took a deep breath. Kankuro started to walk faster, Temari taking a deep breath was never a good sign.

"I'm going to kill you," she hissed through clench teeth. That's when Kankuro ran.

She was far too angry to race after him and she was certain he'd tire himself out with all the girlish running he was doing so she took her time stalking after him.

The water was now starting to reach her shoulders and if she planned on continuing she'd have to resort to swimming after him. She turned around and decided to exact her revenge on him at a later time. Revenge _was_ a dish best served cold. That being the case she would make sure she served it to him frozen.

As she made her way back she felt something attach itself to her ankle. At first she shrugged it off as seaweed and shook her leg a bit in an effort to get it loose. Her leg was free but whatever was stuck to it refused to come off. Whatever it was it felt way too heavy to be a piece of seaweed.

She tried kicking it off and on her last kick her ankle was finally freed while something sand colored soared towards her and attached itself on her head.

The feel of the rubbery thing with its numerous suckers was too much for her to handle. She screamed a scream shrill enough to make someone go deaf and then started to run around in a Kankuro like fashion.

Baki was shocked out of his nap—his other eye had eventually closed— and Gaara looked up from his sand examination with mild interest.

Kankuro swam back and when he reached her he tried to pull the poor disoriented octopus off her blonde head.

"Temari stop moving!" He gave it a tug.

Temari's response was to scream even louder, repeatedly shrieking, "Get it off! Get if off!"

The octopus finally came off with a loud pop and Kankuro hurled it in the opposite direction as hard as he could. She still shuddered when remembered the experience, the feel of its gruesome flesh and the sucker marks it had left on her face.

So when Shikamaru invited her to a new seafood restaurant Choji had told him about, she was wary.

The restaurant wasn't the fanciest she'd been to but it had a fish tank next to each table. The tank nearest to the entrance held several bright red lobsters and they stared back at her with their dark beady eyes. Temari was silently praying that they didn't have an octopus tank.

She made sure to seat them by a tank that was empty except for a few rocks. When she felt sure that there wasn't an octopus in sight she fell into light conversation with the lazy boy in front of her.

Eventually, a waiter came up to their table asking them for their order.

"What's the special? Shikamaru drawled, his eyes seemed to be fixed on something behind her.

"Well I'm glad you asked sir," the waiter smiled, "Today's special is squid, that squid in the tank behind you to be exact."

Temari turned around. The said squid had attached itself to the glass, showing the many suckers on its arms and tentacles while it opened and closed its birdlike beak. This sight caused her to scream at the top of her lungs which caused the poor waiter to drop his notepad and pen in surprise and it also caused Shikamaru to jump out of his chair and look for the potential threat, kunai in hand.

In the end Shikamaru had to walk a blubbering Temari out of the restaurant all whilst she clung to the front of his green chunin vest. He wouldn't admit it but it felt kind of nice, for a deadly Kunoichi she felt soft and curvy against him.

A lazy smile spread across his face.

It became a well-known fact that Shikamaru had developed a fondness for squid, octopus and anything with tentacles. No one really knew why though.

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_A/N: I have a feeling most of you are going to skip over this. I usually do too but if you did decided to read it would be wonderful if you left some feedback (you don't have to if you don't want to). I mostly wrote this to improve my writing because though I may read a ton I hardly write. So if you notice anything wrong please feel to tell me and be blunt as possible. Many thanks._

_This is actually my first fanfic and the idea of it came to me while I was going through Temari's page on the Naruto wiki site. Apparently her least favorite foods are octopus and squid which got me wondering why? That's when this little one shot was born. _

_I've actually always wanted to try octopus but I've heard from a couple of my friends that it tastes like chicken which is pretty disappointing to be honest. Anywhooooo thanks again for reading and I hope I didn't waste your time._


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